Regency Personalities SeriesIn my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

John Bell
May 12 1763-April 15 1820

John Bell

Born in Edinburgh, he was an elder brother of Sir Charles Bell. He completed his professional education in Edinburgh and then began to attract large audiences to his lectures in Surgeon’s Square. Between 1793-1795 he published Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds. He is considered a founder of modern surgery of the vascular system.

He made enemies because he was outspoken about incompetent surgeons that caused unnecessary pain and suffering amongst their patients. He got involved in 1800 against James Gregory who was a professor of medicine in Edinburgh. Bell was excluded from the Royal Infirmary because of it and then devoted himself to his practice and the study of medicine. He was a talented artist and illustrated his own work. Injured in a fall, he went to Italy to heal and died in Rome.

His other works include, Principles of Surgery (1801), Anatomy of the Human Body and Observations on Italy (1825).

Those who follow this Blog will know that we maintain a Pinterest Board of all the graphics that are shared in our posts. That way Regency Researchers (I know you all are such) can go to the board and find these graphics easily.

There is even a link on the Right Sidebar. But those new to the Blog might not realize that, so here is our periodic reminder that we have such a service for you to avail yourself of.

There are now more than 450 pins of various people, art, drawings of locations, etc. at the board.

I still have another chapter or two of the Prize to impart, but I am stopping midway in each book so that I have whetted your appetites. I also have found that many unscrupulous people will cut and paste my writing and others into one long document and claim that they have written the story I have. Thus it is best to only show half the book to you all.

But the whole story not having been revealed, so to the publishing story.

I want to have these two books be Kickstarter projects but to elevate our normal publication scheme. I want to use a professional cover, and illustrations for each chapter. To do this, I need feedback. One that you would like to see the books done so.

But also I need to work up the budget and need quotes from professionals in the field. Those who would like a gig as an illustrator for the books, or more than one. And copyeditors. Please send me your info in the comments section.

The funding level will be calculated to ensure that these professionals who contribute will get paid for their work!

Illustrators, especially if you can emulate the style of CE Brock would be perfect.

Having finished editing another of our fantasy books, I have started to lean to the idea that perhaps a professional artist might be better than my own renditions, of Trolls, warriors and Dragons.

If anyone knows of someone who would like to discuss designing a cover for RAP, please get in contact with us.

Otherwise we may end up with this

For our many other works, one of the things we would like to see is having pen & ink or pencil illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. Can you draw like CE Brock? He did amazing work for the books and stories of Jane Austen in the early 1900s.

Regency Personalities SeriesIn my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Henry FitzRoy 5th Duke of GraftonFebruary 10 1790-March 26 1863

Henry was rather a non-entity. In a search there is little about him, and no images of him. He was styled Viscount Ipswich for the first part of his life and then the Earl of Euston between 1811 and 1844 until he became Duke. He was the son of the 4th Duke and Lady Charlotte Maria Waldegrave, daughter of the 2nd Earl Waldergrave (an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales.)

Henry represented Bury St. Edmunds in Parliament and then Thetford until he became a Peer and entered the House of Lords. He married Mary Caroline Berkeley, the great-granddaughter of the Charles Lennox, he 2nd Duke of Richmond and thus a descendent of Charles II. She and Charles had five children.

For those who follow this space, you will know that I have sold a story to Xchyler Publishing
They have a Steampunk anthology that is planned to be released in April. My story is about the grandsons of Wilkins Micawber and David Copperfield. Two fine young officers of the Royal Dirigible Corps, stationed in Southern Africa at 1879.
The fun part, should you comment and be selected, is that the publisher wished to promote the book and is planning to give out Advance Reader Copies to those who will actually write a review.
The copies should be ready in early April for review. Please let me know is you are interested in the comments below so I can hook you up for an ARC with Xchyler Publishing!

At this point in my writing career, I think, though of course I can’t say for certain, that I have a few fans.

We may be able to count them on the fingers of one hand, but I hope there are more of you out there.

One thing though that I suffer from at this stage, is feedback.

I have 2 writing groups that I attend and we discuss the big issues in writing and critique some of what I have produced, but they do not meet often enough to work through an entire book as fast as I write them.

So, I am looking for someone, or someones who might like to help with the process.

To read my first drafts and check that I am on the right path with my plotting, my character development.

What this means is that I shall include the person(s) who wish to be a part of the process in my thinking and they can help to craft where the story goes.

The job is to read the draft when I have finished with it, and provide criticism (you can be brutal like that character would never do that! or you forgot David, they didn’t say things like that until forty years later.) Oops… If you see glaring word misuse Then/Than and can correct it that would be appreciated as well, but not totally part of the job description. And to do this in a timely manner.

That last part is because I have hit up close friends to do this. They have volunteered (I placed an open Facebook request) and then I sit, and I wait, and I am reluctant to twist the arms of friends into if they have actually read the files I sent them. So timeliness is important, else I am stumped for moving on to the second draft and the continued editing process so we can release the book for more to read

What you get for this service. A signed copy of the book when released. Your name in the acknowledgements and should we start selling 1000+ copies of each book, real money. (Should we start selling 3000 copies of each book, I’ll place a post for hiring a real copy editor.)

That’s what I got for now. Anyone interested, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!